The Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), representing over a thousand curators from across North America, staunchly opposes the proposed sale of Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943, from the permanent collection of the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

This proposed sale violates a cornerstone of museum ethics, which dictates that no work of art from a museum's collection can be sold other than to acquire other works of art so as to upgrade and refine the collection in question. The proposed sale of Mural stands not only in clear opposition to museum ethics but also to the long-term interests of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, of the university at large, and of the state of Iowa. To sell a lynchpin of the Museum's collection--one of the most important works of art in Iowa--would forever harm the reputation of the Museum, the university, and the state. Selling the work would permanently deprive current and future generations of University of Iowa students--as well as regional, national, and international visitors to its campus--of a significant component of the university's and the state's cultural patrimony.